The average daily number of electronic equity trades carried out across the two exchanges increased 85 per cent on January last year to 1.3 million, while the average daily value traded grew 45 per cent to £15.3 billion (€20.5 billion). The total number of electronic equity trades during the month was 27.7 million, and the total value traded amounted to £337.5 billion (€451.4 billion).

UK Order Book

These totals included record levels of trading on the UK equity order book. The total number of trades during January 2008 reached 19.4 million, or an average of 883,793 trades per day, up 130 per cent on January 2007. Trading activity exceeded a million trades on four days during January 2008, including 22 January, which was the busiest single day on record with almost 1.4 million trades.

The total value traded during the month was £225.5 billion (€301.6 billion), up 54 per cent on last year, and the average daily value traded was £10.3 billion (€13.7 billion).

Italian Order Book

The average daily number of trades in Italian equities during January 2008 was a record at 330,549, an increase of 27 per cent on the same month last year. The average daily value traded was up 15 per cent year on year to €5.5 billion (£4.1 billion). The total number of trades was 7.3 million, and the total value traded was €121.1 billion (£90.5 billion). January 22 was again the biggest single day on record, with a total of 559,287 electronic equity trades.

International Order Books

There were 945,549 electronic trades in international equities across the two exchanges' markets during January 2008, an increase of 25 per cent year on year. The value traded increased by more than a third, up 36 per cent on January last year to £21.4 billion (€28.6 billion).

ETF and ETCs

It was also a record month for trading in ETFs and ETCs across the two markets. The total value traded more than doubled compared with January last year, up 140 per cent yeear on year to £5.6 billion (€7.5 billion). The total number of trades also increased, up 42 per cent to 195,625.

Derivatives

8.5 million contracts were traded on EDX London and IDEM during the month, 63 per cent more than during January 2007. The notional value traded was also up, increasing 49 per cent year on year to £144.8 billion (€193.7 billion).

Separately, there were 283,846 trades in securitised derivatives during the month, amounting to a total value traded of £2.4 billion (€3.2 billion).